The pygmy marmoset, one of around ten kept at the Malmö Reptile Centre in the city’s Folketspark, was spotted by two officers while they were out on patrol.
After being outmaneuvered, the officers called for back up, but even then failed to trap by the agile creature. According to witnesses, several civilians aided the police in their pursuit.
Johanna Persson from the Malmö police said on Friday night that, when contacted, the zoo’s management had claimed that the marmosets were sometimes permitted to leave the the zoo in the evening.
“It is allowed to be out in the evenings. There was nothing strange about it,” she told the local Sydsvenskan newspaper.
However, Joakim Lungström, a worker at the zoo, on Saturday morning told The Local that while they did occasionally escape, the monkeys were never actually intentionally released into the park.
“They are absolutely not allowed to go out in the park,” he said. “I don’t know where that came from.”
He said he was not at all surprised that the officers had had problems.
“They are very, very quick and they are also intelligent and not at all easy to catch. They climb and jump everywhere. Normally you need to be a couple of persons with nets.”
In the rare instances when they did escape, he said they could normally be relied upon to return to the zoo of their own accord.
“They return by themselves, because they live as a family so they don’t want to be on their own,” he said.
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